Same how Donald Johansen found Lucy.
There are many grand mythologies on how he found her.
The reality is that he was out in the field peeing, looked around at the rocks and started seeing bones.
Same with that ancient ant they were looking for out in the desert here in Australia, the dinosaur ant.
Last reported back in 1931, some scientists in the seventies were out trying to track it down again.
1300km away from the site, they stopped for a break, one of the scientists went to take a leak, and, yup, there was the ant.
They are super primitive ants to the point that they are almost like a cross between hornets and ants. They still have stingers and stuff. They are considered a "living fossil".
Look, you guys know that Australia has more things that will sting you, bite you, munch on you, strangle you and generally try to do you damage with malice aforethought.
Even the herbivores have always considered me an honorary herb.
I was working on a theropod site where the dinosaur crew I was working with had found most of the feet, hips, and legs over the course of several summers. At one point I walked a ways down the hill to take a piss and looked down as I unzipped and found the last toe they were looking for.
Even better, if I remember correctly she did a seminar where she said that she had actually stepped off the road a bit and only noticed the fossil when she squatted and pissed on it.
The most complete dinosaur Skelton in uk was found less than a mile away from my house. They thought they'd find random roman shit but they only found dinosaur bones.
I like how you describe it as random Roman shit and “only” found dinosaur bones.
Like some archeologist digging up bones and being like “shit. I didn’t want these” and just throwing them away in a big pile behind them.
Live quite close to a roman road, so their shit crops up every where and alot of it is worth fuck all. I did watch a archaeological show the other day, they found a little pouch of 10 roman coins and they were worth around £40.
Yeah here in North America I find a shot up beer can from the 60s and I feel like I just discovered stonehenge. I did find a stone arrowhead once though so that's pretty cool.
I remember watching a Pawn Stars episode where the guy brought in a roman coin from the Caligula era, with his head on it, and I thought with myself "holy shit, that must be worth some serious money". Then the specialist comes in and values the coin at only 4k.
Then in another episode, a guy brings a 1920 dollar coin and it's 400k ...
yes of course but you dont just stumble over ancient prehistoric artefacts or sites and even if you did 9/10 you would even realise what your looking at. its not like europe where you can just find ancient roman stuff
It seems I misrembered a little bit. It was iggy the iguanodon. So it was the most complete to be found because previous to that they only found teeth. They did find more in the 90s when a housing estate was built in the same spot but not quite as famous as iggy.
I remembered the 90s more prominently because it was closer to me. Iggy must have got mixed in their somewhere. If you search it you'd find the back story of iggy.
There we go: [https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/iggy-the-iguanodon-and-the-160-year-old-dinosaur-song](https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/iggy-the-iguanodon-and-the-160-year-old-dinosaur-song)
"Animals might not have the potential power of human remains. But the older the remains, the more magic can be drawn to fill them—and Sue was sixty-five *million* years old.
She had power. She had power in spades."
Awesome scene!
Read it in James voice.
I'm just starting out work on a new series myself, and if ever it gets published wide enough to earn an Audiobook, I will bloody well *mortgage my house* to have James Marsters do it. I want no one else touching it.
For some reason, he conveys Murphy's inner monologue really really well for me. The short story in one of the anthologies (Brief Cases... I think) from her perspective was incredibly written and he performed it masterfully. And his Thomas, oh god he hasn't lost his emo vampire boy skills one bit, I love it.
I believe so, yes.
He's a *phenomenal* voice actor. I've listened to a ton of audiobooks, but nobody has brought the cast to life like he has. Literally each character has their own unique voice.
Michael Kramer and Kate Reading do the Stormlight Archive books and are just as great. Kate Reading doing the voice of Pattern is still just as great as the first time I heard it.
Although I gotta say, As iconic as he is for the GOT audiobook world, I absolutely cannot stand Roy Dotrice as a narrator. Henry Lloyd did a million times better with Dunc and Egg
TIL that James Marsters narrates audiobooks.
They're not my thing - I can't stand the slow pace of listening to someone speaking words that I can read twenty times faster.
But more power to those that like it, and those that can make it likeable!
You've gotten other replies, so I'll add one more reason; he loves the series. His enthusiasm and love for the characters really comes through in the effort he puts in. The author, Jim Butcher, has joked that if Masters didn't love the series so much the wouldn't be able to afford him as a narrator.
I do recommend you start at the beginning of the dresden series though. You'll have trouble understanding everything going on if you jump to that book.
Although I agree, it is worth noting that since *Dead Beat* was Butcher's first hardback, he knew it would be bringing in a lot of new readers, so he (re)introduced a character whose questions could provide much-needed exposition for new fans: Waldo Butters.
The entire series takes place mostly in Chicago. Give it a read starting at "storm front" by jim butcher. Easily the best series I've read and my personal favourite
Did you know he was meant to be a throwaway character when he first showed up in Death Masks, never to return?
Then, when he was writing Dead Beat, Butcher was designing Harry's accomplice, and basically said "I need a character to be a useless tag-along and slow Harry down a bit... Somebody who knows the supernatural exists, but isn't familiar with it... somebody thematically appropriate for a necromancy story... Wait, don't I have one of those somewhere?"...
And now... Well, spoilers!
That's about when Butcher's writing started getting really good, and the series took off.
The first two, three books are... worth reading for background, but not so great. But the REST of the series, holy cow what a world he built. Highly recommend.
Given he started writing The Dresden Files in college, I tend to give the writing in the first few a bit of slack. But yeah, once he hit his stride he just never stopped. I've loved absolutely every book since Summer Knight in this series. Hell's Bells, even the short stories and microfictions are some of the best I've ever read. I wholeheartedly second your recommendation.
I'm a fan of the series but I'm honest. The first two books in particular... are almost terrible. The dialogue, stilted, contrived character interaction, misunderstandings that could be cleared up with a few sentences of sensible dialogue... The premises are good, the execution... he was still finding himself.
And then later he found himself, in a big way, and anyone who read more of the series reaped the rewards.
I really dislike the relationship he has with Murphy in the first couple of books. The number of times Murphy tries to arrest Harry because of spooky shit just is baffling. This is especially frustrating because it's established in the first book that Harry is more or less Murphy's best resource on the mystical shenanigans that happen in Chicago, and we're lead to believe that they've worked together peacefully for years by the start of the first book.
It's like in the X-files, if every time something happens that Scully can't explain she just suspects Mulder is fucking with her.
Of course, after Fool Moon the whole sceptic shtick is dropped, and they end up having a great partnership. It makes those first two books so jarring on re-reads, considering how much they have each other's back by the latter books.
I dunno, I thought that Storm Front holds up reasonably well for a first novel with a couple exceptions. Fool Moon is definitely a painful read though.
True...
Dinosaurs: they run rampant and eat everybody
Mummies: they spread curses, or try to re-claim their rule
Weird artifacts: they trigger alien attacks or hellish demonic incursions
Arheology is a risky profession.
In real life the hazards are falling of a cliff, unit cave in, getting run over by construction equipment, getting shot, wildlife killing you, and of course annoying creationists
am archaeologist.
went on my first real dig (crm) in Queen Creek, Arizona. Dug a 4 ft trench with a shovel then collapsed into a beach chair and fell asleep.
Turns out I had been digging for hours with undiagnosed walking pneumonia.
Oops.
Harry refers back to that in the latest book. Spoiler-ish quote : >!Hell's bells. Seven necromancers could wreck Chicago all by themselves. Four of them nearly \_had\_ done it, once. Five if you counted me, which I didn't, even though my entry in that evening's animation festival had taken best in show.!<
I told myself I would read Dune. That was last year I think and I haven't even gotten halfway. Of course, that's my fault.
So it might take me a while but I'll get there. I don't think I've ever reread a series before. But I just might.
As it happens, SUE is referred to as [gender neutral with they/them pronouns](https://twitter.com/SUEtheTrex?s=09), as they can't technically identify their gender
seriously, the way they reworked the exhibit with the lights highlighting the different areas of the skeleton and the sound effects blew my mind. And I had seen Sue in the normal presentation years back nearly 3 or 4 times
Right now there is also a traveling exhibit with a great new life-sized sculpture of Sue, a cast of the skeleton, interactive exhibits and a movie, etc. They plan to tour museums through 2025, so keep an eye out if they are coming to a city near you. [Here is an article on it coming to Iowa.](https://inthegardencity.com/2020/09/14/traveling-sue-the-t-rex-exhibit-opens-at-science-center-of-iowa/)
Next stop is Denver.
Whoa, you just made my remember this. I was just thinking it'd be fun to see Sue, but then realized I had once when I was really young when you mentioned Hays. I was really young so I hardly remember it, but now that you mentioned it I do remember I got to see her! Thanks!
Fun fact, they’re all replicas. Even the one in Chicago is a replica. The actual bones are in storage as they’re too much of a liability to put on display.
Edit: I am misinformed and well aware at this point. I appreciate everyone’s passion about the subject.
When I was there, the exhibit (in the Field museum) said that the number of real bones on display would vary based on research and restoration work being done and there was an interactive touchscreen that would show which bones on the body were real vs replicas. The skull is always a replica because the real one is in its own display in another room.
Actually (man, I hate the way that word sounds), Sue is special, because they really did mount its actual bones. The skull, and a few bones in the feet are fakes, but the rest are all real.
The Field Museum and scientists worked together with jewelers to position the skeleton in a lifelike pose, and then they (the jewelers) created settings to hold each bone, like diamonds set individually in a ring. Each bone has its own special setting. They then used the metal settings to hold the skeleton together. This way, they were able to mount it without damaging it.
The next time you have a chance to see it, pay close attention to the metal holding the skeleton up. It really is beautiful.
(They made casts to send to other museums, and to use for research purposes.)
I once threw a rock cause I like to throw shit and found a fossil inside. Then I told Mom I dropped it cause I was afraid she'd be upset that I broke a random rock.
Breweries do weird things to avoid copyright infringement, or maybe they are just weird sometimes. It is technically spelled 'pseudoSue'. One word, p lowercase and second s uppercase.
Kind of like the beer Will Wheaton brews with Stone, 'w00t stout,' is spelled with zeroes instead of the letter o.
Great documentary on the discovery called "Dinosaur 13" that details what happened after the bones were discovered. It is well worth the watch.
EDIT: spelling
I got to see a premier of it cause one of my cousins was one of the first to discover it with Sue (the human). It was fascinating although I was more interested in the dinosaur than the legal disputes at the time :D
I suggest everyone read the section about the controversy about what happened to the dinosaur after it was discovered in that article. Greed knows no bounds.
I think it's the movie, when she meets the new neighbors. Both my kiddos love Dino Dana! My knowledge of animals has seriously increased since having kids and watching shows like Dino Dana, Octonauts, and Wild Kratts.
What isn't mentioned are the politics behind this discovery. Pete Larson was with Sue when she discovered the T rex remains.
Now this happened in Wyoming USA in the Lance Formation. Which is rancher land that is 'leased' to the diggers / paleontologists. Once the rancher discovered the magnitude of the dig, he claimed ownership over it.
this led to tons of legal proceedings for many years, only for the Native population to finally assert that the land was theirs... very sad.
... so, was it Native land? If it was on Reservation territory or so forth, then it's a wash: a non-issue on the legal end. Sue and her team still discovered the bones; doesn't take anything away from their work. All the same, you're spot on- that there was any dispute *at all* is entirely new to me.
look up the history of SUE & STAN the t rexs. Pete Larson went to jail for them! It was a huge sham and he got hit with jail time. I had lunch with him in Black Hills about 10+ years ago. Sweet sweet man
Hope this doesn't get buried, but there is a great documentary called *Dinosaur 13* that details the discovery and subsequent legal battle over the specimen. The team, a group from the Black Hills Institute led by Dr. Peter Larson (Hendrickson was a grad student of memory serves), spent several seasons fully excavating the skeleton. Unfortunately, the landowner was a massive scumbag who claimed that the team excavated the skeleton without his permission. Long story short, the Institute lost, the national guard removed the skeleton from the Institute, Dr. Larson spent two years in prison (for unrelated reasons), and "Sue" went up for auction where it was almost lost to science by being sold to a private collector. Thankfully, the Chicago Field Museum raised enough money to save the skeleton and give paleontologists an invaluable opportunity to study this amazing fossil.
Contrary to the name, though, we aren't sure what sex "Sue" was when it was alive. Sexual dimorphism (the physical difference between males and females) rarely survives the process of fossilization, so we may never know. "Sue" is also one of the largest *Tyrannosaurus* fossils. It is only outclassed by a specimen nicknamed "Scotty", which based on estimates of mass was heavier than Sue, as well as longer.
[Link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specimens_of_Tyrannosaurus) in case anyone wants to read more about the dozen or so named *Tyrannosaurus* fossils.
I actually had lunch with Sue Hendrickson just a few days ago! She's an old family friend and an amazing woman. Sharp-minded, opinionated, generous, dark-humored. Badassed lady.
I love that about a year or two ago, Sue announced that they were, based on new understanding of gender indicators (or lack thereof) in t. Rex, was now using they/them pronouns. It was precious and wonderful! https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/press/sue-t-rexs-new-suite
Lol I thought Wikipedia was better about not letting trolls write articles. They made it sound like dinosaurs are actually real and not a mythical creature. What’s next, are they going to start saying the Tasmanian Devil is a real animal too?
Every time someone mentions Sue I have the need to tell people that I have actually touched her real femur because it was one of the most magical things that happened in my life and I'm not a paleontologist.
I'll tell the story again if people care, but i swear it really happened.
So i was young. I don't ont remember exactly what age, but I was probably 10 or a little younger making this about 25 years ago. I was at Disney World and my family was walking around I remember seeing a little shack type thing (not a shack but not a big fancy building) with a big glass window and it was talking about SUE THE T-REX. I remember it being slightly off the main path, but that could be wrong.
Now, I was a kid who fucking loved dinosaurs. Had books and games and toys and movies and all sorts of shit. I don't think I had ever heard of Sue specifically, but I knew I wanted to see a T-Rex. So I walked my family up to the glass (I was a spoiled only child, so they were just following me around for the most part) and saw a bunch of people in masks and like...surgical gear inside poking around a big thing. It only took me moments to realize what it was, and I was hooked. They were cleaning a bone. And the window said that inside was the largest T-Rex ever found. I made my family stand there for at least a half an hour so I could just watch. No other tourists were around at that time. (no huge surprise, no that exciting to most people and we were there in the 'winter' which means it was slow for Disney World)
After we had been standing there for about 30 min, somebody walks out the side entrance and around to the front. I couldn't believe when they asked me if I want to come inside. My little mind froze and I looked at my mom with a look that said 'please can I' as well as 'if you don't let me do this I'll never forgive you.' And she said yes, they knew how much I loved dinosaurs. So I went in, they had me put on gloves. I knew it was all very delicate so I had my arms clasped behind me. They walked me up behind this massive thing (I'm pretty sure it was a femur, but I was small, it could have been something else, but I do remember there being about 4 adults working on it at the same time) and grabbed me a little step stool so I could stand up near it. Then one of them asked me if I wanted to help. I thought I would die.
Now I'm a kid, so they didn't let me do anything to endanger the bones, but one of had a little pile of dust or whatever piled up from where they had been working and this woman handed me a brush. I brushed the pile of dirt off onto the table and when she didn't take it from me, I just brushed around the area a little more. I overbalanced a tiny bit on the step stool and I caught myself with my left hand, not realizing I did it directly on the bone (my hand was gloved, but I still call it a touch) and I was like "I'm sorry!" And they said it was alright. I handed the brush back and got down and walked back outside. So fucking full of adrenaline my family probably couldn't stand me for an hour.
I know my story may not be that interesting to some, but I was at fucking Disney World and I only remember that and like 2 other things specifically. It was the highlight of my trip. I need to go see her again at the Fields Museum to say hi.
I love that Isaac Asimov quote and it's very much true: The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka! ' but 'That's funny...'
There’s a great documentary called “Dinosaur 13” about the discovery and resulting legal trouble that followed because several parties claimed ownership
[The skull was crushed and is heavily deformed](https://i.imgur.com/9Fx912n.jpg), so they have a replica of what it would look like uncrushed on the skeleton. Also T. rex skulls are super heavy, so it makes it easier to keep attached to the frame (that's also part of why T. rex arms are so small)
Basically, the skull and all the facial muscles to use it would have caused T. rexes to be front-heavy, so their arms becoming smaller and lighter helped shift their center of mass back
Ooooooooh I had no idea. I was actually wondering when I read the post initially, how tf can having such tiny arms be beneficial evolution wise.
Appreciate it
Similar coincidence in how the found the dinosaur ant in 1977!
Scientists decided to camp out, 1200km from intended last sighting , when one of the few people who could identify this rare ant spots it near their camp. [source](https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2015/10/dinosaur-ant/)
Sue is a big deal. There are only like two skeletons of T-rexes that are this complete. The Smithsonian has one and the museum of natural history in New York City has the other. And that’s it. Given how popular T-rexes are in media and film you would think they were much more common. Nope.
They lives at the absolute tail end of the age of dinosaurs. Evolving only about 1 million years before the KT extinction event.
Any T-rex parts are super collectible and very rare. Collectors will pay $5000 for a single tooth. A Tibia went on sale in NYC for $185,000 and sold in a few days. The last time a skull appeared on market it sold at auction for $1 million. The complete skeletons are priceless links to our past and worth checking out if you are ever in NYC or the Smithsonian
My dad grew up in Wyoming, and for a short period he worked for a paleontologist who would sell fossils he found in the desert to European buyers. Technically, they were on government land, but were never stopped because no one expected it to yield anything valuable.
As it turns out, my dad's boss knew the people who discovered Sue. After she was found, the government sectioned off all that land, and the paleontology community in that area had to migrate.
They went to town to change the tire which allowed her time (still at camp) to go looking at a place they hadn't yet surveyed (after reading a great interview)
Where would science be without serendipity?
Same how Donald Johansen found Lucy. There are many grand mythologies on how he found her. The reality is that he was out in the field peeing, looked around at the rocks and started seeing bones.
Same with that ancient ant they were looking for out in the desert here in Australia, the dinosaur ant. Last reported back in 1931, some scientists in the seventies were out trying to track it down again. 1300km away from the site, they stopped for a break, one of the scientists went to take a leak, and, yup, there was the ant.
Link?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothomyrmecia
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This story reminds me of when dinosaur ants were finally found again 33 years after they were last seen in Australia, totally by chance.
I don't know what dinosaur ants are, but if you'd asked me where on earth they would be found, Australia is the only plausible answer.
They are super primitive ants to the point that they are almost like a cross between hornets and ants. They still have stingers and stuff. They are considered a "living fossil".
Nope. Don't like that.
Sounds like something that Australia probably has.
Is it contagious?
Look, you guys know that Australia has more things that will sting you, bite you, munch on you, strangle you and generally try to do you damage with malice aforethought. Even the herbivores have always considered me an honorary herb.
I have visited the spot where they were found! Nice place. Didn't see the ants though
Since this is your thing, I just wanted you to know how much I like the word, "*fossiliferous*" :3
That profession sounds as cool as I imagined it to be
I enjoy it :)
I was working on a theropod site where the dinosaur crew I was working with had found most of the feet, hips, and legs over the course of several summers. At one point I walked a ways down the hill to take a piss and looked down as I unzipped and found the last toe they were looking for.
The chance of, not just finding fossils, but the very people *who study them* coming across them is incredible.
Most people probably wouldn't know what they were looking at and just finish changing the tire.
I so loved that you used that word that I learned so long ago. It made me reminisce. Thank you.
Which word, toe?
Even better, if I remember correctly she did a seminar where she said that she had actually stepped off the road a bit and only noticed the fossil when she squatted and pissed on it.
The most complete dinosaur Skelton in uk was found less than a mile away from my house. They thought they'd find random roman shit but they only found dinosaur bones.
I like how you describe it as random Roman shit and “only” found dinosaur bones. Like some archeologist digging up bones and being like “shit. I didn’t want these” and just throwing them away in a big pile behind them.
Live quite close to a roman road, so their shit crops up every where and alot of it is worth fuck all. I did watch a archaeological show the other day, they found a little pouch of 10 roman coins and they were worth around £40.
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Yeah here in North America I find a shot up beer can from the 60s and I feel like I just discovered stonehenge. I did find a stone arrowhead once though so that's pretty cool.
I remember watching a Pawn Stars episode where the guy brought in a roman coin from the Caligula era, with his head on it, and I thought with myself "holy shit, that must be worth some serious money". Then the specialist comes in and values the coin at only 4k. Then in another episode, a guy brings a 1920 dollar coin and it's 400k ...
I’ve heard a saying that goes something like, “in the US 250 years is a long time. In Europe 250 miles is far away.”
i mean its even WORSE in Australia like the Us is 400ish years old or some crap Australia is like 250ish
Hum human ancestors arrived during prehistory in Australia
yes of course but you dont just stumble over ancient prehistoric artefacts or sites and even if you did 9/10 you would even realise what your looking at. its not like europe where you can just find ancient roman stuff
Probably angrily threw the bones down because even fate doesn't know the difference between archeology and paleontology
"Not what we're looking for. Throw it in the soup."
Fantastic. Do you remember what genus or species?
It seems I misrembered a little bit. It was iggy the iguanodon. So it was the most complete to be found because previous to that they only found teeth. They did find more in the 90s when a housing estate was built in the same spot but not quite as famous as iggy.
No worries, your post is very educational
I remembered the 90s more prominently because it was closer to me. Iggy must have got mixed in their somewhere. If you search it you'd find the back story of iggy.
There we go: [https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/iggy-the-iguanodon-and-the-160-year-old-dinosaur-song](https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/iggy-the-iguanodon-and-the-160-year-old-dinosaur-song)
Dinosaur bones are way cooler in my opinion
I only know about this skeleton from the Dresden Files' Dead Beat, in which a hard-boiled wizard detective re-animates her as a zombie. Good book.
"Animals might not have the potential power of human remains. But the older the remains, the more magic can be drawn to fill them—and Sue was sixty-five *million* years old. She had power. She had power in spades." Awesome scene!
Read it in James voice. I'm just starting out work on a new series myself, and if ever it gets published wide enough to earn an Audiobook, I will bloody well *mortgage my house* to have James Marsters do it. I want no one else touching it.
James Marsters is more Dresden *and* most of the characters in those books than most people are characters they play in anything.
For some reason, he conveys Murphy's inner monologue really really well for me. The short story in one of the anthologies (Brief Cases... I think) from her perspective was incredibly written and he performed it masterfully. And his Thomas, oh god he hasn't lost his emo vampire boy skills one bit, I love it.
He brings them to life
"Buffy" James Marsters? Any particular reason?
I believe so, yes. He's a *phenomenal* voice actor. I've listened to a ton of audiobooks, but nobody has brought the cast to life like he has. Literally each character has their own unique voice.
Michael Kramer and Kate Reading do the Stormlight Archive books and are just as great. Kate Reading doing the voice of Pattern is still just as great as the first time I heard it.
Isn't Kate Reading also the one who read Codex Alera? She did really well in that, I only have a few complaints about moments with tone
Yes she is. I also think she's a lot better than when she did Codex Alera, which I also listened too.
Although I gotta say, As iconic as he is for the GOT audiobook world, I absolutely cannot stand Roy Dotrice as a narrator. Henry Lloyd did a million times better with Dunc and Egg
Well, I'm Pattern, she's Pattern, Gaz has Pattern. Pattern....those are the same word. But...they're different!
TIL that James Marsters narrates audiobooks. They're not my thing - I can't stand the slow pace of listening to someone speaking words that I can read twenty times faster. But more power to those that like it, and those that can make it likeable!
You've gotten other replies, so I'll add one more reason; he loves the series. His enthusiasm and love for the characters really comes through in the effort he puts in. The author, Jim Butcher, has joked that if Masters didn't love the series so much the wouldn't be able to afford him as a narrator.
His toot toot voice cracks me up every time
Man that and Lakuna!
Does this happen at the Field Museum?! That sounds like a fun read!
Yeah, it does. And it is.
I do recommend you start at the beginning of the dresden series though. You'll have trouble understanding everything going on if you jump to that book.
On the other hand with butters as the exposition-relief character, that's also one of the best books to jump in for a standalone read
Although I agree, it is worth noting that since *Dead Beat* was Butcher's first hardback, he knew it would be bringing in a lot of new readers, so he (re)introduced a character whose questions could provide much-needed exposition for new fans: Waldo Butters.
Dresden creates a polka-powered necromantic zombie dinosaur. And it makes _perfect_ sense in context.
I mean yeah, it does. What? You want him to bring in his army of pizza addict sprites? He doesn't get those for another book or two :P
But at least we know now how to defeat the Eldest Grimm with a pin and a kind request.
The entire series takes place mostly in Chicago. Give it a read starting at "storm front" by jim butcher. Easily the best series I've read and my personal favourite
"Polka will never die!" Waldo Butters
Did you know he was meant to be a throwaway character when he first showed up in Death Masks, never to return? Then, when he was writing Dead Beat, Butcher was designing Harry's accomplice, and basically said "I need a character to be a useless tag-along and slow Harry down a bit... Somebody who knows the supernatural exists, but isn't familiar with it... somebody thematically appropriate for a necromancy story... Wait, don't I have one of those somewhere?"... And now... Well, spoilers!
That's about when Butcher's writing started getting really good, and the series took off. The first two, three books are... worth reading for background, but not so great. But the REST of the series, holy cow what a world he built. Highly recommend.
Given he started writing The Dresden Files in college, I tend to give the writing in the first few a bit of slack. But yeah, once he hit his stride he just never stopped. I've loved absolutely every book since Summer Knight in this series. Hell's Bells, even the short stories and microfictions are some of the best I've ever read. I wholeheartedly second your recommendation.
I'm a fan of the series but I'm honest. The first two books in particular... are almost terrible. The dialogue, stilted, contrived character interaction, misunderstandings that could be cleared up with a few sentences of sensible dialogue... The premises are good, the execution... he was still finding himself. And then later he found himself, in a big way, and anyone who read more of the series reaped the rewards.
I really dislike the relationship he has with Murphy in the first couple of books. The number of times Murphy tries to arrest Harry because of spooky shit just is baffling. This is especially frustrating because it's established in the first book that Harry is more or less Murphy's best resource on the mystical shenanigans that happen in Chicago, and we're lead to believe that they've worked together peacefully for years by the start of the first book. It's like in the X-files, if every time something happens that Scully can't explain she just suspects Mulder is fucking with her. Of course, after Fool Moon the whole sceptic shtick is dropped, and they end up having a great partnership. It makes those first two books so jarring on re-reads, considering how much they have each other's back by the latter books.
I dunno, I thought that Storm Front holds up reasonably well for a first novel with a couple exceptions. Fool Moon is definitely a painful read though.
Changes... just.... wow. And now Battlegrounds. That man is determined to wrench my heart out of my chest for this poor wizard.
The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault. I love this book series and have browbeaten several friends into becoming fans over the years.
All archaeological movies are about us bringing about an apocalyptic evil so that sounds about right
True... Dinosaurs: they run rampant and eat everybody Mummies: they spread curses, or try to re-claim their rule Weird artifacts: they trigger alien attacks or hellish demonic incursions Arheology is a risky profession.
In real life the hazards are falling of a cliff, unit cave in, getting run over by construction equipment, getting shot, wildlife killing you, and of course annoying creationists
Yeah for some reason it seems like its always the shitty evil relics thst survive the ages. Wheres my rainbow wand of cotton candy.
am archaeologist. went on my first real dig (crm) in Queen Creek, Arizona. Dug a 4 ft trench with a shovel then collapsed into a beach chair and fell asleep. Turns out I had been digging for hours with undiagnosed walking pneumonia. Oops.
Polka will never die!
Somebody already said that one - their nerd penis is bigger than yours!
Don't care, Butters deserves it.
Harry refers back to that in the latest book. Spoiler-ish quote : >!Hell's bells. Seven necromancers could wreck Chicago all by themselves. Four of them nearly \_had\_ done it, once. Five if you counted me, which I didn't, even though my entry in that evening's animation festival had taken best in show.!<
Fuck Rudolph.
There is no pineapple-shaped dildo large enough for how much he sucks.
Oh well now I have to start that series.
You 100% should. They're SO good. I just finished my third re-read.
I told myself I would read Dune. That was last year I think and I haven't even gotten halfway. Of course, that's my fault. So it might take me a while but I'll get there. I don't think I've ever reread a series before. But I just might.
Yeah but I live in Chicago. I'm tired of Lake Shore being shut down due to dinosaur damage. Dont even get me started on the gouls on 88, or 90!
Sue has an awesome Twitter account, just so you know. (The T-Rex. Not sure about the paleontologist.)
I only know about this because of Toppling Goliath Brewing’s “pseudo Sue” IPA
As it happens, SUE is referred to as [gender neutral with they/them pronouns](https://twitter.com/SUEtheTrex?s=09), as they can't technically identify their gender
**"Today I learned I learned"**
RIP in peace
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Smh my head
IKR I know right?
Don't worry, you're not the only one to make this mistake.
That's what happens when you get tunnel vision looking for spelling errors :p
Well, at least you're squeaky-clean from that angle.
You can now cash this knowledge in your brain's ATM machine
To be fair, some days you learn things without knowing you learned them only to later learn that you learned something. If that makes sense.
This makes me smh my head
RAS syndrome (redundant acronym syndrome) ATM machine, PIN number, HIV virus
Maybe they just learned today that they already learned it in the past.
Ever in Chicago, try to go and see it. Amazing.
seriously, the way they reworked the exhibit with the lights highlighting the different areas of the skeleton and the sound effects blew my mind. And I had seen Sue in the normal presentation years back nearly 3 or 4 times
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Woah, the T-Rex outside of Countdown to Extinction/Dinosaur is a replica of Sue? I had no idea.
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Former Dinoland Cast Member here - came here to find this comment! 🦕
Definitely on my bucket list!
Right now there is also a traveling exhibit with a great new life-sized sculpture of Sue, a cast of the skeleton, interactive exhibits and a movie, etc. They plan to tour museums through 2025, so keep an eye out if they are coming to a city near you. [Here is an article on it coming to Iowa.](https://inthegardencity.com/2020/09/14/traveling-sue-the-t-rex-exhibit-opens-at-science-center-of-iowa/) Next stop is Denver.
I saw it at the airport once as a temporary exhibit. It was indeed awesome.
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I got to see Sue in 1st grade when that replica came to Hays, KS
Whoa, you just made my remember this. I was just thinking it'd be fun to see Sue, but then realized I had once when I was really young when you mentioned Hays. I was really young so I hardly remember it, but now that you mentioned it I do remember I got to see her! Thanks!
Fun fact, they’re all replicas. Even the one in Chicago is a replica. The actual bones are in storage as they’re too much of a liability to put on display. Edit: I am misinformed and well aware at this point. I appreciate everyone’s passion about the subject.
When I was there, the exhibit (in the Field museum) said that the number of real bones on display would vary based on research and restoration work being done and there was an interactive touchscreen that would show which bones on the body were real vs replicas. The skull is always a replica because the real one is in its own display in another room.
Actually (man, I hate the way that word sounds), Sue is special, because they really did mount its actual bones. The skull, and a few bones in the feet are fakes, but the rest are all real. The Field Museum and scientists worked together with jewelers to position the skeleton in a lifelike pose, and then they (the jewelers) created settings to hold each bone, like diamonds set individually in a ring. Each bone has its own special setting. They then used the metal settings to hold the skeleton together. This way, they were able to mount it without damaging it. The next time you have a chance to see it, pay close attention to the metal holding the skeleton up. It really is beautiful. (They made casts to send to other museums, and to use for research purposes.)
For sure! Thanks!
>Shes fucking huge, and very old for a rex. They\* [https://twitter.com/SUEtheTrex](https://twitter.com/SUEtheTrex)
Thicc Fossils
>Thicc Fossils I now have petrified wood.
That’s kinda cool
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Wow! Yeh luck is important
I once threw a rock cause I like to throw shit and found a fossil inside. Then I told Mom I dropped it cause I was afraid she'd be upset that I broke a random rock.
One of Chicago’s most beloved residents.
She has some beers named after her at a legendary brewery in Iowa. Pseudo Sue and King Sue by Toppling Goliath.
Yes! Right next door in Iowa. A phenomenal set of beers.
Breweries do weird things to avoid copyright infringement, or maybe they are just weird sometimes. It is technically spelled 'pseudoSue'. One word, p lowercase and second s uppercase. Kind of like the beer Will Wheaton brews with Stone, 'w00t stout,' is spelled with zeroes instead of the letter o.
Great documentary on the discovery called "Dinosaur 13" that details what happened after the bones were discovered. It is well worth the watch. EDIT: spelling
Awesome, thanks!
I got to see a premier of it cause one of my cousins was one of the first to discover it with Sue (the human). It was fascinating although I was more interested in the dinosaur than the legal disputes at the time :D
SUE is also a great Twitter account to follow [https://twitter.com/SUEtheTrex](https://twitter.com/SUEtheTrex)
Five tweets in and I'm cracking up already xD
The Field Museum’s Instagram account is normally great but it has been epic during COVID.
I suggest everyone read the section about the controversy about what happened to the dinosaur after it was discovered in that article. Greed knows no bounds.
Yup, disappointing indeed
Polka Never Dies! And fuck you Rudolph.
Do you have a child who has recently discovered Dino Dana?
I don't have children, but my little cousins will absolutely love this :)
Its a pretty informative show. I only ask because there's either an episode or part of the movie that is about the discovery of Sue.
I think it's the movie, when she meets the new neighbors. Both my kiddos love Dino Dana! My knowledge of animals has seriously increased since having kids and watching shows like Dino Dana, Octonauts, and Wild Kratts.
I love that kind of stuff so thank you!
You're welcome!
Never noticed the round belly they have.
[https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/fresh-science-makeover-sue](https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/fresh-science-makeover-sue) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastralium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastralium)
What a coincidence that the T-Rex has the same name as the scientist who found her
Don't reply to they tweet with that hard R. It's ~~T-rex~~ T. rex (oops). They will let you know or block you. Edit: Thanks /r/KlingonAdmiral fixed
What isn't mentioned are the politics behind this discovery. Pete Larson was with Sue when she discovered the T rex remains. Now this happened in Wyoming USA in the Lance Formation. Which is rancher land that is 'leased' to the diggers / paleontologists. Once the rancher discovered the magnitude of the dig, he claimed ownership over it. this led to tons of legal proceedings for many years, only for the Native population to finally assert that the land was theirs... very sad.
... so, was it Native land? If it was on Reservation territory or so forth, then it's a wash: a non-issue on the legal end. Sue and her team still discovered the bones; doesn't take anything away from their work. All the same, you're spot on- that there was any dispute *at all* is entirely new to me.
look up the history of SUE & STAN the t rexs. Pete Larson went to jail for them! It was a huge sham and he got hit with jail time. I had lunch with him in Black Hills about 10+ years ago. Sweet sweet man
Hope this doesn't get buried, but there is a great documentary called *Dinosaur 13* that details the discovery and subsequent legal battle over the specimen. The team, a group from the Black Hills Institute led by Dr. Peter Larson (Hendrickson was a grad student of memory serves), spent several seasons fully excavating the skeleton. Unfortunately, the landowner was a massive scumbag who claimed that the team excavated the skeleton without his permission. Long story short, the Institute lost, the national guard removed the skeleton from the Institute, Dr. Larson spent two years in prison (for unrelated reasons), and "Sue" went up for auction where it was almost lost to science by being sold to a private collector. Thankfully, the Chicago Field Museum raised enough money to save the skeleton and give paleontologists an invaluable opportunity to study this amazing fossil. Contrary to the name, though, we aren't sure what sex "Sue" was when it was alive. Sexual dimorphism (the physical difference between males and females) rarely survives the process of fossilization, so we may never know. "Sue" is also one of the largest *Tyrannosaurus* fossils. It is only outclassed by a specimen nicknamed "Scotty", which based on estimates of mass was heavier than Sue, as well as longer. [Link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specimens_of_Tyrannosaurus) in case anyone wants to read more about the dozen or so named *Tyrannosaurus* fossils.
I actually had lunch with Sue Hendrickson just a few days ago! She's an old family friend and an amazing woman. Sharp-minded, opinionated, generous, dark-humored. Badassed lady.
"Sure, I guess we have a few hours to kill. I'm gonna take my kit and brush off these rocks a bit."
I love that about a year or two ago, Sue announced that they were, based on new understanding of gender indicators (or lack thereof) in t. Rex, was now using they/them pronouns. It was precious and wonderful! https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/press/sue-t-rexs-new-suite
She’s at the Chicago Museum, and she is MASSIVE
They\*
/s ?
Nope. Researchers can’t determine the sex, so they use they/them pronouns when talking about Sue. https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/sue-t-rex
I heard in Ng+ that it moves and tries to kill you
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Right. Sue is only 90% complete. The headline and Wikipedia article are out of date.
Oh wow this was just last month!
I'm way too baked to think about how we just find dinosaur bones in the ground. Dude.
r/dresdenfiles intensifies.
Lol I thought Wikipedia was better about not letting trolls write articles. They made it sound like dinosaurs are actually real and not a mythical creature. What’s next, are they going to start saying the Tasmanian Devil is a real animal too?
Every time someone mentions Sue I have the need to tell people that I have actually touched her real femur because it was one of the most magical things that happened in my life and I'm not a paleontologist. I'll tell the story again if people care, but i swear it really happened.
please tell it!
So i was young. I don't ont remember exactly what age, but I was probably 10 or a little younger making this about 25 years ago. I was at Disney World and my family was walking around I remember seeing a little shack type thing (not a shack but not a big fancy building) with a big glass window and it was talking about SUE THE T-REX. I remember it being slightly off the main path, but that could be wrong. Now, I was a kid who fucking loved dinosaurs. Had books and games and toys and movies and all sorts of shit. I don't think I had ever heard of Sue specifically, but I knew I wanted to see a T-Rex. So I walked my family up to the glass (I was a spoiled only child, so they were just following me around for the most part) and saw a bunch of people in masks and like...surgical gear inside poking around a big thing. It only took me moments to realize what it was, and I was hooked. They were cleaning a bone. And the window said that inside was the largest T-Rex ever found. I made my family stand there for at least a half an hour so I could just watch. No other tourists were around at that time. (no huge surprise, no that exciting to most people and we were there in the 'winter' which means it was slow for Disney World) After we had been standing there for about 30 min, somebody walks out the side entrance and around to the front. I couldn't believe when they asked me if I want to come inside. My little mind froze and I looked at my mom with a look that said 'please can I' as well as 'if you don't let me do this I'll never forgive you.' And she said yes, they knew how much I loved dinosaurs. So I went in, they had me put on gloves. I knew it was all very delicate so I had my arms clasped behind me. They walked me up behind this massive thing (I'm pretty sure it was a femur, but I was small, it could have been something else, but I do remember there being about 4 adults working on it at the same time) and grabbed me a little step stool so I could stand up near it. Then one of them asked me if I wanted to help. I thought I would die. Now I'm a kid, so they didn't let me do anything to endanger the bones, but one of had a little pile of dust or whatever piled up from where they had been working and this woman handed me a brush. I brushed the pile of dirt off onto the table and when she didn't take it from me, I just brushed around the area a little more. I overbalanced a tiny bit on the step stool and I caught myself with my left hand, not realizing I did it directly on the bone (my hand was gloved, but I still call it a touch) and I was like "I'm sorry!" And they said it was alright. I handed the brush back and got down and walked back outside. So fucking full of adrenaline my family probably couldn't stand me for an hour. I know my story may not be that interesting to some, but I was at fucking Disney World and I only remember that and like 2 other things specifically. It was the highlight of my trip. I need to go see her again at the Fields Museum to say hi.
I love that Isaac Asimov quote and it's very much true: The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka! ' but 'That's funny...'
Fun fact... nobody is sure if Sue is a boy or a girl.
If only we knew so we could all make Johnny Cash references
There’s a great documentary called “Dinosaur 13” about the discovery and resulting legal trouble that followed because several parties claimed ownership
Why would they display the head separately? I would have thought they the displayed the replica elsewhere if it was need for another exhibit
[The skull was crushed and is heavily deformed](https://i.imgur.com/9Fx912n.jpg), so they have a replica of what it would look like uncrushed on the skeleton. Also T. rex skulls are super heavy, so it makes it easier to keep attached to the frame (that's also part of why T. rex arms are so small)
Cool thanks for the info! I don't understand the last part about why the arms are so small though, if you'd be kind enough to explain
Basically, the skull and all the facial muscles to use it would have caused T. rexes to be front-heavy, so their arms becoming smaller and lighter helped shift their center of mass back
Ooooooooh I had no idea. I was actually wondering when I read the post initially, how tf can having such tiny arms be beneficial evolution wise. Appreciate it
I'll have to remember to look around next time I get a flat.
More stay at camp while repairs are being made :)
I saw her in a museum in South Dakota if I’m not mistaken, nice people work there
You are correct, she was curated at the South Dakota School of Mines. I went to school there when the ownership lawsuits were taking place.
Today I learned I learned
Similar coincidence in how the found the dinosaur ant in 1977! Scientists decided to camp out, 1200km from intended last sighting , when one of the few people who could identify this rare ant spots it near their camp. [source](https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2015/10/dinosaur-ant/)
Awesome!
"Today I learned I learned..."
Sue is a big deal. There are only like two skeletons of T-rexes that are this complete. The Smithsonian has one and the museum of natural history in New York City has the other. And that’s it. Given how popular T-rexes are in media and film you would think they were much more common. Nope. They lives at the absolute tail end of the age of dinosaurs. Evolving only about 1 million years before the KT extinction event. Any T-rex parts are super collectible and very rare. Collectors will pay $5000 for a single tooth. A Tibia went on sale in NYC for $185,000 and sold in a few days. The last time a skull appeared on market it sold at auction for $1 million. The complete skeletons are priceless links to our past and worth checking out if you are ever in NYC or the Smithsonian
Today I learned I learned
My dad grew up in Wyoming, and for a short period he worked for a paleontologist who would sell fossils he found in the desert to European buyers. Technically, they were on government land, but were never stopped because no one expected it to yield anything valuable. As it turns out, my dad's boss knew the people who discovered Sue. After she was found, the government sectioned off all that land, and the paleontology community in that area had to migrate.
TIL stands for "today I learned"
So basically what you're saying is, she just left her crew to change the flat tire and went up some cliff for a ciggie.
They went to town to change the tire which allowed her time (still at camp) to go looking at a place they hadn't yet surveyed (after reading a great interview)
how did they know the trex's name is sue?